Off Base(65)

Beck smiled humorlessly. “C’mon, man. It’s obvious you’re sleeping with my sister.” He shrugged one massive shoulder. “That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I asked you to look after her, but if you’re going to treat her with the respect she deserves, then we won’t have a problem. She’s an adult who makes her own decisions. A fact my girlfriend might have mentioned several times on the ride home.”

Cullen exhaled, not about to lie or deny the allegation. He knew touching Huntley had broken a code, but he wasn’t sorry for it. In fact, the only thing he regretted at the moment was how things went down between them back at her house.

Beck arched a brow and looked pointedly at Cullen. “So. Do we have a problem?”

Cullen shook his head and dropped back down on his couch. “She’s going back to Georgia.”

Beck studied him a moment. “Is that a fact?”

Cullen nodded once.

“And you’re down with that plan?”

“It’s her decision. I can’t make her stay here if she doesn’t want—”

Beck threw back his head and laughed. “Are you really that stupid? You have to give her a reason to stay. Same way I gave Kenna a reason to go. Have you asked Hunt to stay at Black Rock?”

Cullen’s hands opened and closed into fists. Was it that easy? He simply had to ask? “Maybe it’s best if she goes.” He dragged a hand over his head. “I only know that I can’t let her down.” He failed his father. He failed Xander. He couldn’t fail Huntley, too.

“Maybe you don’t want her to stay,” Beck challenged. “Maybe you had your fun with her and now you’re done.”

“Hey.” Cullen surged to his feet, forgetting for a moment that this was Huntley’s brother. He grabbed Beck by the front of his shirt and shook once. “It’s not like that.”

“No? Then what is it like?” At Cullen’s silence, Beck nodded. “Maybe you need to figure that out before she’s gone. Because my sister is strong and she’ll move on, while you’re sitting here, wondering how the hell you let her get away.” He moved for the door and pulled it open. “Think about that.”

Thinking about that was all he did for the rest of the night.

He didn’t sleep a wink, staring into the dark, wondering when he had become so thoroughly f*cked. He’d fallen in love with his best friend and had done everything wrong … everything to send her packing and walking out of his life forever.

It dawned on him then.

The exact thing he didn’t want to happen—failing Huntley, losing her—was happening.

Shit. If he didn’t fix things with Huntley now, it would be too late.

Maybe it already was.

*

“There’s a patient complaining of chest pains in exam room five,” Nancy, the senior nurse on duty, said as Huntley walked up to the nurse’s station after assisting one of the doctors with a broken arm in exam room three. She’d seen it time and time again. Alcohol and foosball did not mix.

Huntley eyed the clock, eager for when she could take her break and grab a latte from the food truck outside. “And I’m guessing you want me to take the patient?”

“You don’t mind, do you?”

“Course not.” Busy was good. Busy stopped her from thinking too much about Cullen. When she returned to her empty house tonight, she would have plenty of time for that.

Huntley took the chart and started down the hall, stopping when something occurred to her. She looked over her shoulder. “Exam room five?”

The other nurse shrugged, smiling mysteriously as she drifted in the opposite direction down the hall. Chest pain was usually prioritized into exam rooms one or two. Unless triage had deemed the patient low priority for some reason.

She continued, pushing open the door, a greeting on her lips as she flipped open the chart, ready to glance over the patient’s basic information—and found it blank.

Huntley looked up, her heart stopping at the sight of Cullen sitting on the exam table. Her chest squeezed at the sight of him. Those molten chocolate eyes. The hard body unmistakable beneath his fatigues. He braced his hands on each of his thighs in an anxious manner.

“Cullen? What are you doing here?”

Cullen was here. In front of her.

She snapped shut the chart, knowing she had been sabotaged. A quick glance up and down his lean body confirmed that he looked as hale and hearty as ever. He had to get Nancy’s help for this. “Shouldn’t you be at work?” she demanded.

He placed a hand over his heart. “I hurt. Right here.”

Her lips twitched at the utter seriousness of his expression. “That so?”

Pulse racing, she set the chart down on the counter and walked forward. Clearing her throat and ignoring the sudden constricting of her own heart, she feigned seriousness. “When did this pain start?”

“A few nights ago.”

“I see.” She swallowed against the sudden dryness of her throat and resisted the urge to fling her arms around his neck. “Can you describe the pain?”

He nodded solemnly. “Yeah, at first my pulse raced and it felt like my heart might explode.”

“Hm. Interesting.”

“And then last night, the pain changed.”